Prodigy
by Anfalas
Summary: "Oh God, there's two of them!" - Dr Eppes meets Dr Reid. Gen. Leaning in the direction of a case!fic, but not entirely. Possibly some Spencer/Charlie pre-slash, if you squint.
1. Another day, another dollar

"Anybody home?' called Don as he walked through the front door of his brother's house. It had been a late night, an exhausting case and now he was looking forward to some down time with a beer and some company. Unfortunately, the only company that would realistically still be awake at this hour was his little genius brother.

Having one of the brightest minds on the planet wasn't always an advantage. Charlie sometimes suffered from acute insomnia, where his lightning-fast, ever-working brain refused to let him go to sleep. During those nights he would spend hours in the garage, furiously chalking away on various boards, complex patterns and mathematical equations whizzing through his head.

Despite their past differences, Don couldn't help but feel for his brother in those instances. Right now, however, he was kind of hoping that they could have a chat. They hadn't seen each other in at least a week.

He steered towards the garage and knocked on the door. No reply.

'Hey, Charlie, are you still up?' he asked, opening the door.

Sure enough, there Charlie was standing, with a furrowed brow and an expression of intense concentration on his face.

Just then, Don's phone started vibrating in his pocket, making a beeping sound.

Charlie was startled by the sudden noise, jumped and looked up. 'Oh, hey there, Don, didn't see you come in!'

'Yeah, hi, wait just one second, I need to get this.' Don made an apologetic face and turned to take the call.

'Eppes.'

It was Colby Granger, who sounded just as tired as he felt. 'Sorry Don, I know you just got back, but I'm afraid there's been another homicide. College student, 19 years old, completely different from the other victims, but same stabbing pattern.'

Don heaved a heartfelt sigh. 'Okay, thanks Colby, I'll be right there.'

Charlie had stopped his work and looked at his brother with an expectant expression on his face. 'Anything wrong?'

'I gotta go. That was Colby, there's been another murder. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?' He leant forward to give his brother a pat on the back and then turned to stride purposefully out the room.

'Don't forget to eat!' yelled Charlie as Don left.

'Yeah, yeah!' he retorted from the living room, having to grin despite himself. Don't forget to eat. Charlie was one to talk, once he was fixated on a problem, he could go without sleep or food for over 36 hours. He had seen him do it.

When Don arrived back at the Los Angeles FBI office, he felt a sense of both dread and déjà vu. He had literally just left this place for the night. He had hoped to not see it again until the morning. Add that to the fact that he was now dealing with the fourth murder victim in a month and it didn't look like things boded well.

Oh well, occupational hazard, he thought to himself as he got into the elevator. Another day, another dollar.

When he got out the elevator, he rolled up his sleeves and ruffled once, twice through his hair. Ready for anything the night might still throw at him.

Sinclair, Reeves and Granger were already gathered in the bull pen, which wasn't surprising as Charlie's house was the furthest away and it had taken him longest to get here.

Their faces were grim as he greeted them.

'Though I hate to say it, Don, I think we're going to need some additional help on this one' said Megan, turning her computer screen towards him to show him the new crime scene photos.

'Should I call Charlie and Amita?' he asked, looking intently at the blood spatters on the wall behind the dead girl. 'They could do that analysis thing that…'

'Not doubting your brother's skills here Don, but all we've got is four dead victims and no leads,' put in David. 'Megan had the idea that we could call in the BAU?'

'The BAU?' asked Don, slightly incredulously. 'But we already have an expert profiler!'

Megan nibbled the end of a pencil. 'That_ is_ true, but they are more highly trained, qualified and experienced than me. You've got to admit Don, we've got nothing. Just four apparently unconnected victims.'

'O-kay,' said Don slowly. 'I guess we could use the extra man power. This is going to require a lot of footwork, interviews, that kind of thing. I'll see what I can do.'

**AN: So that was the first chapter. If you would like me to continue, please do drop me a quick review and let me know. Also, if you find spelling errors, typos, blindingly obvious mistakes or the like, do let me know! If you bear with me, I will introduce our two favourite teams to each other in the next chapter or so. Have a wonderful day, everybody, and thank you for taking the time to read. **


	2. Profiling 101

Back in Quantico, the entire Behavioural Analysis Unit was quietly relieved at finally having something to do.

Though they loved having time off to spend with their families – particularly Hotch and JJ – they all felt a sense of duty and restlessness, urging them to get back to work.

Spencer Reid had written three different Psychology papers in the last week he intended to publish, and was in the middle of the research for his fourth, when Garcia's text flashed on his iPhone, summoning him to come in.

_Assemble crime fighters!_

Grabbing his messenger bag and his ID badge, he headed for the door of his little apartment, already speculating (and calculating probabilities) on where they would be heading next.

After everybody had gathered round their usual table in their usual conference room, Garcia and Hotch brought them up to speed with all of the details of the case.

As it turned out it would be heading to LA, to help figure out an apparently random spree killing which had been going on for the past month. Random, apart from the fact that the victims had all been stabbed exactly three times in the chest. That was where the similarities stopped. If the body count had not passed three, the FBI would never have been called in, and consequently the BAU wouldn't have been either. As it was, the team was happy to assist with the investigation, as long as nothing more urgent came up. That was how Hotch had phrased it, anyway.

OoO

The sun was hot and high in the sky when they finally arrived in California almost six hours later.

As they got out of the jet and stepped out onto the hot tarmac, Spencer dug out his sunglasses. Whilst he wasn't always hypersensitive to light, it most certainly didn't help his headaches.

'Reid, you and Morgan go ahead and set up at HQ, Rossi and I will have a look at the first crime scene. It's where the UNSUB is most likely to have made a mistake. JJ and Prentiss should go to talk to the latest victim's family,' Hotch ordered. There were quick nods all around and the BAU team dispersed into the various standard, black, government issued SUVS.

Reid sighed and scrubbed his eyes before getting in the car with Morgan.

'You alright?' Derek asked him, with a concerned look.

'What's that? Oh, yes, I'm fine.'

This reply earned him a raised eyebrow, but thankfully his colleague didn't comment any further on the issue.

Traffic was tough in downtown LA, and it was almost an hour before they reached their destination. 'I sure hope it doesn't take this long all the time,' said Morgan with an impatient huff, 'or I may have to resort to my more creative driving methods.'

Spencer smiled into the file he was currently holding in his lap. He had only just opened his mouth when Morgan waved his hand at him to stop. 'Don't tell me any statistics about driving in LA, kid!'

OoO

'Um, hi, my name is Agent Eppes, this is my team, Agent Reeves, Agent Sinclair, and Agent Granger. Thanks for coming,' said Don as a way of greeting Morgan and Reid as they walked in to the bull pen.

Derek gave them all a firm handshake. 'We're here to help in any way we can. My name is Agent Morgan, this is Dr Spencer Reid. The rest of our team is on their way.'

Spencer gave them a self-defecating but bright smile and waved his hand.

Colby gave him an odd look, and Reid launched into his socially acceptable explanation. 'The amount of pathogens passed through a handshake is staggering…it's actually safer to…'

'Kiss, yeah,' Morgan finished for him and grinned. 'Ignore him. Is there anywhere we can set up? The rest of our team will be here soon.'

'Oh, um yeah, sure, right this way,' said Don after looking from Reid to Morgan a couple of times.

A couple of puzzled looks also passed between Colby and Sinclair as they followed Don towards the conference room that had been cleared in preparation for the BAU's arrival. As soon as Morgan and Don had struck up a conversation about what information they had concerning the case thus far, Megan elbowed Colby hard in the ribs.

'What was that for?' he whispered at her.

'Behave, Granger,' she whispered back, out of the corner of her mouth.

Reid, in his usual enthusiastic manner – not having heard this admonishment on his behalf – made his way to the huge map on the pinboard. 'Has anybody started on the geographical profile yet?' he asked.

'Go ahead, Reid,' Morgan said, 'if you can get that done in the next ten minutes or so we'll know where we're at, and where we need to focus our investigation.'

'Geographical profile?' asked Don, looking slightly skeptical.

Morgan shrugged. 'It's a method of figuring out the UNSUB'S comfort zone. It helps us narrow down our profile among other things, so that you can be more certain you've got the right guy when you make an arrest.'

Reid had turned to the pin board and muttered under his breath as he pushed pins and stood back a couple of times to reassess his work.

A look of understanding dawned on David Sinclair's face. 'Like Charlie did that one time, and we searched this whole area and it turned out the killer had recently moved from there, if I remember correctly.'

This time it was Derek's time to look slightly confused. Normally he would he answering questions such as, 'what does UNSUB mean?' or, 'how does profiling actually work and is it as unreliable as it sounds?'

Don jumped in with an explanation. 'He's talking about my brother. He helps out with our cases sometimes.'

Before Morgan could reply, the doors opened and Hotch and Rossi entered the building.

'We didn't find much,' said Rossi to Morgan as they entered the conference room, 'But that was only to be expected, seeing as it was a month ago.'

Hotch shook everybody's hand. 'I take it you are Agent Eppes, we spoke on the phone?'

'Yes, hello. You're coming here is much appreciated. Shall we get started? We're running out of time if the killer carries on with his time frame.'

OoO

**AN: As you've probably noticed by now, my writing isn't that great :D I'm hoping that it isn't just drivel and that you are enjoying it at least a little bit. If so, do please let me know, if you feel so inclined. I was extremely happy to see people favouriting and following this story, and I'm so grateful for the people that took the time out of their day to let me know they liked it. Next update may be after Christmas. Until then! **


	3. First meeting

**YOU GUYS! I'm not dead! I'm so sorry for the long delay! 'After Christmas' indeed. I apologise! I got a real big part in a huge ballet production (squee!) and my life has been one big whirlwind of university and squeezing my poor feet into pointe shoes for, like, 8 hours at a time. I've got to tell you, I'm shattered! However, the overwhelming response to this little piece has spurred me on. I promise, I won't ever abandon it :) **

**RL excuses out of the way: I do hope you enjoy this next chapter. Because you've had such a long wait, I've decided to let our two favourite dorks meet each other a bit sooner than planned ;) **

**I'm eager to share this with the world, so it is hot off the press. Feel free to point out any mistakes you may find! **

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Spencer was developing a first-class headache. It was all he could do to focus on the task at hand – speed reading through a whole bunch of files Derek had unceremoniously shoved into his face. 'Your brain works faster than ours, kid,' his colleague had only said with a smirk, before disappearing off with the rest of the team.

Now the young genius was the only one left in the bull pen, scanning old case files for details that might or might not have anything to do with their current case. He rubbed his forehead and blinked rapidly in an attempt to put his brain back on track.

Sometimes, task allocation sucked royally. It was humid, the sun glared at him through half-closed blinds and his shirt was sticking to his back. He couldn't help it, his mind kept going back to the geographical profile he had created just a few hours before. Something was wrong with it, but he couldn't quite figure out what...if only the numbers in his head weren't such a muddle… Damn, photosensitivity did know to seek him out at the worst possible moments.

In his mind's eye he went through the algorithm again. Technically, there shouldn't be anything wrong with it. The math was flawless. However, his gut was telling him otherwise. So what was it about the map?

He sighed heavily, as he realised that he had been staring at the file in his hand for the past two minutes and thirteen seconds. Time to get back to work. With grim determination he flipped over the page and started scanning again. The pile of folders he had read rose next to him, but he found nothing but apparently useless information.

Sometimes he wondered if his friends at the BAU realised how tedious it was for him to absorb so much information, only to be able to recall it perfectly for the rest of his life. He knew more facts about little-known (and, to be frank, unimportant) criminals than any human should. He quickly banished the thought from his mind. He was grateful for his brain's prowess – he couldn't imagine being without it. It was part of who he was, and it had helped him find his place in the world.

'Ahem, I'm so sorry to disturb you – hello!'

Spencer looked up in surprise. He was so immersed in his work that he hadn't notice anybody come in, let alone approach him. He saw before him a friendly-looking young man with curly black hair and an easy smile.

Quickly recovering, he flashed him a smile of his own. 'Um, hello? Do you, um, how can I help you?'

The man stretched out his hand. 'I'm Charlie, Don's – that is, Agent Eppes's – brother. You must be from the Behavioural Analysis Unit?'

'Oh, yes, indeed, I am Agent Reid. I'm sorry but your brother is currently questioning suspects. He left approximately,' he glanced at his watch, 'fifty seven minutes ago.'

The man's – Charlie's – smile grew wider. 'That's okay, I just need to drop this set of probabilities off that he asked me to do. I don't think it's anything to do with this current case, but can I leave it with you?'

Nodding, he stretched out his hand for the wad of papers that Charlie was holding. 'Sure thing. I'll hand it over as soon as he gets back.'

'Thank you so much – I would drop it off at his desk, but I doubt he'd spare it a second glance if I did,' he chuckled.

Spencer carefully placed the papers next to one of his 'to-read' piles. He shrugged. 'I just hope it doesn't get buried.'

Don's brother was looking with interest at the piles of files surrounding Spencer. 'Not that it's any of my business, but what are you working on?'

For a second, Spencer balked. That was a very direct question concerning confidential FBI business – surely an Agent's sibling would understand that he couldn't discuss anything. With one glance at Charlie's face however, he ascertained that it was genuine curiosity and perhaps even a desire to help. And he was wearing an FBI visitor's ID badge in the pocket of his casual and loose-fitting blazer.

Charlie must have noticed his hesitation because he laughed and raised his hands. 'No worries, man, my brother is always telling me that curiosity killed the cat!'

'Is he really?'

'Um, yeah. Look, I can see you're busy, I think I'd better just, you know, be getting back to my office. Thanks a lot though, Agent Reid.'

'Sure thing. Before you go, ah…what I'm doing is reading through this, and this, and this, and in fact this, box of old files in the hopes of finding a specific combination of data which could help us flesh out our preliminary profile for the case we've been called in to help with. Unfortunately they all originate from before it was customary to log case details on computers, and thus I'm doing it by hand.'

Before Spencer could add that they did in fact usually have a technical analyst available, a bright stab of light from the window assaulted his senses and made him wince and squeeze his eyes shut. 'Argh, shoot!'

He felt a hand on his shoulder. 'Y'alright?' Charlie was asking him.

'Yeah, no, it's all good.' After a moment's consideration he conceded, 'Well, I haven't had coffee in over sixteen hours now, apart from that…' He blinked at Charlie. 'Appreciate your concern!'

Just in that moment, Charlie's phone rang, and with an apologetic smile, he hastened to answer it. 'Gotta get this, sorry – Dr Eppes speaking?'

**OoO**

Don had to hand it to the BAU. They were professionals. From what he had observed so far, they were good – no, brilliant – at what they did. He particularly admired their effortless team work. They seemed to exist as a little family unit, interacting with laidback familiarity and trust.

He chuckled internally. What they didn't have, on the other hand, was a resident math genius to lend them a hand. Having Charlie work with him over the past couple of years had really solidified their relationship, as well as skyrocketed their percentage of successfully closed cases. Who needed a degree in Psychology anyway, when you could just ask your brother to work out the problem on a blackboard?

Next to him, in the passenger seat of the SUV, sat Agent Morgan, wearing a tight black V-neck T-shirt and tacky sunglasses, which somehow seemed to suit him despite this. Noticing Don's glance, he spoke up. 'Last suspect, right?'

Don nodded. One more to go. They had compiled a list of people to talk to for each victim, seeing as they really had nothing much else to go on. Agent Hotchner had insisted that one BAU member went with one FBI Agent respectively, as they were there able to pick up on cues they had not been trained to. Apart from Megan, of course. She and Agent Rossi had struck up a lively conversation when they discovered she had attended some of his classes and book readings when she had been training to be a profiler.

And so he found himself admiring the BAU, instead of resenting it, as indeed he himself had thought he would only yesterday. However, all of this wasn't going to help them if they didn't figure out soon what kind of agenda their killer – or killers – had. He said as much.

'Oh, I've seen stranger cases work out even after I thought they wouldn't,' replied Morgan with a shrug.

'God, me too,' Don found himself agreeing. 'There was this one time that my brother figured out some weird mathematical explanation as to why people suddenly started inexplicably shooting each other. Something to do with – no, I really can't remember. But I made sense at the time.' He huffed and had to smile a little bit at himself. Here he was, rambling away about the things his kid brother did, like a proud Dad.

Morgan cocked an eyebrow. '_Really_?' he drawled. 'That sounds like Spenc…Agent Reid.'

'Oh?' said Don. Agent Reid. The young guy they had left behind to read through an enormous pile of paperwork. He had thought that he was perhaps a probationary agent, not cleared yet for field work.

'Kid's a handful, let me tell you. BAU wouldn't be the same without him. You saw him – he lives, breathes and eats intelligence. Just don't tell him I said that,' he flashed another grin at him.

That gave Don pause for thought. A high IQ could explain the reason for him to be on the team. 'I think I know what you mean. I graduated high school the same day as Charlie. Next thing I knew, he was off to Princeton…' he trailed off as he slowed to stop at a red traffic light. Usually he didn't like talking about some of the aspects of his relationship with his brother. They'd certainly had their differences.

'It's tough, man,' said Morgan unexpectedly. 'If your brother is anything like Spencer – sometimes he gets lost in that bubble of his. Takes some coaching to get him to come out.'

Surprised, Don glanced over at the other agent again. 'You – that's _exactly_ what Charlie is like.'

Suddenly Morgan went very still.

'What?' Don demanded.

'Oh God. _There's two of them!'_

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**TBC**

**Thank you so much for taking the time to read. I do hope you liked it. Either way, I'd like to hear from you! I hope to take some time out of my week to finally reply to y'all, and I'm excited to interact with other Criminal Minds/Numb3rs fans. Speaking of, what did you think of last week's episode? Imo the acting has been a bit patchy lately, but I have to admit I did die a little bit during the Spencer and JJ hurt/comfort scenes! **

**With much love, Anfalas x**


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